Category Archives: Cruising Life

Describes an experience regarding the boating lifestyle of our travel.

Looking Around La Playita Anchorage Area

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Today Christi woke up feeling better. Thank goodness. Fortunately, antibiotics didn’t seem like they would be necessary now. Jeff was leaving today, so this morning he packed up and got ready to go. When he was ready, we went to shore and had lunch at the closest restaurant to the dinghy dock, just on the backside of the shopping center we mentioned. As we were walking in, we saw the strangest thing. A car was towing a small airplane!

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The restaurant is a cute place — a round hut made of bamboo and palm fronds with a very high ceiling. We got ceviche for an appetizer. Ceviche is a dip made of small pieces of raw fish or other seafood marinated in lime juice and flavored with things like onion, tomato, cilantro, and chili peppers. It is a Mexican staple and we all like ceviche. Usually, you can’t taste the fish at all. Everyone makes ceviche a little differently. Some are amazingly good and you can’t stop eating them. Others are just OK. This one was pretty good, but not great. Christi didn’t have any, worried that raw fish might be too much for her digestive system right now.

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We all ordered fish, and the dishes came with Continue reading →

Exploring Panama City

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Christi was once again up very early with a sick tummy. She was worse than ever. She contemplated starting on antibiotics, but decided to give it one more day to pass on its own. The nice thing about being up so early the last few days is that she has seen some nice sunrises. Here is today’s.

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From where we sat, we could see four of the islands. They all seem to be Continue reading →

Completing the Transit and the Scary Anchorage

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Continued from yesterday”¦ At 1345, when we pulled into the lock quay, we were told we were tying to a tug. We could see it up ahead, already tied up along the chamber wall in front of the gate. Its name is Atlas III and at the moment it was being used as a tourist tug that takes spectators up and down the Miraflores locks. Davidson told us that the tug is owned by the Canal Authority and is also used as an employee shuttle and to give orientation tours to the employees and their families.

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We didn’t get handed any lines. Instead, we pulled forward, lined ourselves up to the tug and tied up. The tie up was a little bit tricky. We had to readjust all our fenders to line up better with their fenders. We realized there was a vulnerable spot that couldn’t be properly fendered, so Eric had to move Kosmos a little bit so that our alignment against the tug changed in a way that the fenders would sit better. Here we all are frantically adjusting lines.

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After a little more minor fender adjusting, we finally felt comfortable that we were adequately protected and gave the all clear to Davidson. The tourists on board gawked at us as we Continue reading →

Welcome to Colon, Cristobal, Panama

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Neither of us slept well. We were up with the first rays of light on the horizon and pulled up anchor shortly after the sun rose. Today’s ride was much better than yesterday’s. We were in a little more protected of an area and it made a huge difference. This morning, as Eric was walking into the kitchen, a wave came and threw him off balance. Somehow he managed to crunch his little toe against the wall. He heard his toe crack, and thinks it is broken. Sigh.

Eric also noticed the gauges didn’t seem to be working properly again. He went into the engine room and saw the connector was loose. He cleaned it and made sure it was firmly reconnected and all was good with the gauges again.

Well before Colon was visible, we could see some AIS targets on the edge of the radar screen that we knew were probably anchored around Colon. We could barely see the outlines of the ships up ahead. As we got closer, more and more targets appeared until the entire the screen was full of them. The ships went from distant outlines to intimidating masses anchored quite a way outside the bay. Eric has said at least 10 dozen times that he loves AIS. Thanks to AIS, we can tell which ships are anchored and which are moving, and if they are moving, what direction and speed they are moving at so we can stay out of their way. Fortunately, most of the ships here are anchored, and getting in looks to be fairly easy and straightforward. But not knowing if the ships were coming at us or not would have stressed us out to no end.

As the ships came into clear focus, we could vaguely see the outline of a huge industrial complex and a few skyscrapers on the shore. At 1100, Eric called port control on the radio and Continue reading →

Passage from San Blas to Linton Island, Panama

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We really would have liked to stay in the San Blas at least two more days to take part in the special events. Today on Carti Suitupo there are festivities for the biggest holiday of the year for the Kuna people, when they won their autonomy from Panama. Mr. G had invited us back for the last day of the puberty party, which is tomorrow, where the girl is unveiled in her newfound glory, with the shaved head, ring in her nose and her body painted. But we were out of time and really needed to get to the canal. We knew from the radio net that between the anticipated festivities and the not so great weather we have been having, not a lot of boats have headed to Colon lately, which means the canal wait is probably short. It sounds like a lot of boats would all be heading out in the next two or three days, when the forecast improves and the holiday is over. We were afraid that if we arrived in the middle of the glut, we’d get caught in a long canal line.

The trip to Colon would take about 13 hours total, an awkward number. Yesterday we had gone back and forth about the best strategy. Strategy one was to Continue reading →